Campus Martius hopes kids dig history lessons

September 20, 2013

MARIETTA - For the second straight year, the Friends of the Museums are inviting children to experience a part of history.

The Campus Martius Museum will be the site of the Kid's Archaeology Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

"In the same way kids learn about history, there is so much more history than is recorded in history books, and archaeology is the key to that," said Brad Lepper, Ohio Historical Society archaeologist. "History provides us with lessons, and archaeology provides us with many, many, many lessons on how not to have your civilization fall, for example."

Article Photos

Photo submitted by Campus Martius MuseumStudents use pump drills to drive a screw into a piece of plywood during the 2012 Kid’s Archaeology Day at the Campus Martius Museum. Using the pump drills also will be a part of this year’s activities.

Included in the activities will be a flintknapper, who will demonstrate making arrowheads and spear points.

The children participating will find out about the work of an archaeologist and help with a special dig. They will talk about the artifacts they find, what is considered a real artifact and how each object might have been used, said Glenna Hoff, education and program director at Campus Martius.

"It's one thing to read about it in a book or see it on TV," Hoff said. "To actually be able to see things and touch things and imagine how these things were used by people. What are people going to think of cell phones 200 years from now?"

Fact Box

If You Go

* What: Kid's Archaeology Day.

* When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

* Where: Campus Martius Museum, 601 Second St.

* Cost: $7 adults, $4 students. Children 5 and younger are free. Friends of the Museums members are free. Pre-registration is not required.

* For information: 373-3750.

"It gives people a better understanding about how we live and how far we have come in life make us appreciate what we have," she said.

Campus Martius historian Bill Reynolds will describe a recent archaeological dig and talk about items considered to be artifacts and why.

What makes the day's activities different from just a visit to the museum is that most of the activities will be hands-on.

"A lot of things we have they can actually touch," Hoff said. "A lot of collectors don't like kids to touch items. The kids will be able to touch things and tell what they might have been used for."

The Marietta College Geology Club will participate. The members plan to conduct a dinosaur dig for the children.

"Even though we didn't have any in this area," Hoff said. "No one has ever found any."

Lepper agreed.

He said the layers of rock that would have contained fossils were either scraped away or never deposited in the first place.

"All we are left with is the deep layers with trilobites etc.," Lepper said.

The trilobite is the state fossil of Ohio.

Also included in Archaeology Day will be a look at what kind of training is required to be an archaeologist and what the job is like.